1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for the pickling or curing of pieces of meat in continuous operation with a feeder which leads into the space of at least two injection needle cylinders which are driven to pass-on the material and stab with their injection needles into the passing through pieces of meat and, in the process, inject pickling brine from a piping system provided in the interior of the injection needle cylinders into the pieces of meat.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In one known device of this general type in German Published Non-Prosecuted Application kind (DE-OS) No. 2 700 125, the pieces of meat are transported first between the two cylinders of a pair of blade drums, the blades of which only stab into the pieces of meat. This pair of blade drums merely makes openings in the pieces of meat into which pickling brine enters in a vacuum drum which follows the device and is filled with pickling brine after the pieces of meat have been taken to this drum. The pair of cutting drums further acts as a feeder for the pair of injection needle cylinders which follow and through which pickling brine is injected into the passing pieces of meat. Each injection needle cylinder has a cylinder jacket which contains the injection needles and is placed rotatably and with a close fit on a tube which is fastened to the housing in a stationary manner, and is connected to a pickling brine tank under pressure.
The jacket of the cylinder has radial holes which lead to the radial holes of the injection needles and which are disposed opposite sector-shaped recesses extending to the hollow space in the portion of the tube facing the pieces of meat.
If, however, the pieces of meat are narrower than the width of a needle cylinder, ejection of pickling brine under pressure through the needles which do not penetrate into the meat is unavoidable; this brine is not injected into the meat and must be pumped off again. There is also an undesirable pressure drop in the device for compressing the pickling brine. The pieces of meat are transported into the hereinafore-mentioned vacuum drum via a further conveyor device following this pair of drums.
It is an object of the invention to develop a device of this type further in such a manner that the necessary pickling brine can be injected quickly, uniformly distributed, and free of loss, this injection being be so intensive that the aforementioned vacuum drums can be dispensed with. In the case of narrower pieces of meat, ejection of pickling brine from the needles which do not penetrate into the meat should further be prevented. The sticking of pieces of meat on the injection needles should further be avoided.